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Author Topic: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire  (Read 6372 times)

Bill Kessinger

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Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« on: April 11, 2014, 11:47:18 AM »

Hi Everyone-
I am a member of a Task Force within my organization to explore visionary views of a Performance Hall.  The entire committee is comprised of 5 Task Forces, each assigned a specific objective.  My task force is to examine the Performance Hall of the future.  What does it look like?  What does it offer?  The other task forces are charged with the political, governmental, and economic impacts, as well as audience and community involvement.

If anyone has time to answer a few questions, I'd greatly appreciate it,  (if the questions seem vague, they are meant to be).  No right or wrong answers here, and no names will be used in the data collection.  And your answers do not necessarily need to regard audio.  Any and all aspects of venues should be considered.

1- What performance halls today would you consider exemplary?

2- What makes them exemplary?

3- What is missing from performance halls today that you'd like to see?

4- What physical limitations in today's performance halls get in the way of you accomplishing the work you'd like to achieve and that you'd like to see eliminated or transformed?

5-  Let's do some science fiction.  Imagine a performance hall on a college campus 20 years from now.        What should it look like?  How would it be different from today's halls?

6-  Let your imagination run wild.  What could this performance hall of the future look like?


Thanks everyone!

Bill




     
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Ivan Beaver

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2014, 01:09:50 PM »

I see the performance halls fo the future being acoustically dead.

Then one of various "enhancement systems" (like Lares-VRAS etc) being used to give the hall a "sound" that is right for the type of performance that is being done in there.

It is not cheap-but opens up the hall to a wider variety of uses.

Obiously plenty of power-lots of rig locations-cable paths and plenty of truck parking/loading facilities is always wanted.
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2014, 01:24:47 PM »



5-  Let's do some science fiction.  Imagine a performance hall on a college campus 20 years from now.        What should it look like?  How would it be different from today's halls?

6-  Let your imagination run wild.  What could this performance hall of the future look like?


Thanks everyone!

Bill




   

Some say I spend too much time in the future...  ;D

The college campus 20 years from now may resemble shopping malls, as in ghost towns, as future students get their edumacation via the internets.

I expect performance halls to resemble bars or cafeterias, with sound and images transmitted wirelessly to the personal A/V platform du jour (like google glass or whatever smart phone technology).

We don't need no stinkin speakers (sorry Ivan).  Perhaps some butt shakers for impact.

JR
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Doug Fowler

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2014, 04:48:29 PM »

Hi Everyone-
I am a member of a Task Force within my organization to explore visionary views of a Performance Hall.  The entire committee is comprised of 5 Task Forces, each assigned a specific objective.  My task force is to examine the Performance Hall of the future.  What does it look like?  What does it offer?  The other task forces are charged with the political, governmental, and economic impacts, as well as audience and community involvement.

If anyone has time to answer a few questions, I'd greatly appreciate it,  (if the questions seem vague, they are meant to be).  No right or wrong answers here, and no names will be used in the data collection.  And your answers do not necessarily need to regard audio.  Any and all aspects of venues should be considered.

1- What performance halls today would you consider exemplary?

2- What makes them exemplary?

3- What is missing from performance halls today that you'd like to see?

4- What physical limitations in today's performance halls get in the way of you accomplishing the work you'd like to achieve and that you'd like to see eliminated or transformed?

5-  Let's do some science fiction.  Imagine a performance hall on a college campus 20 years from now.        What should it look like?  How would it be different from today's halls?

6-  Let your imagination run wild.  What could this performance hall of the future look like?


Thanks everyone!

Bill




   

Well, I would like to the space designed around a proper sound system, not the other way around.

Death to balcony shading, PA hung out over the audience's head, no place for subs, etc.

The problems occur when aesthetics trump audio. Your average architect knows nothing about audio.

Here's an idea:

Hire an audio consultant that actually understands the issues.  Then, submit RFPs to loudspeaker manufacturers, asking for an EASE model that predicts performance based on total capacity, balcony yes/no, maybe a couple of other parameters.

Now, you will get different dimensions BUT I promise someone will present something that makes perfect sense.  The winner will most likely be the simplest design, and therefore probably the least expensive.

Present the winning design to the architect and demand the space design accommodate the sound system design. 

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Mark McFarlane

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2014, 03:20:25 PM »

How far in the future?  10 years? 50 years? 100 years?

I am hopeful that people will still occasionally gather together for live performances because there is magic there, but I'm with John in thinking that colleges and performance halls will both go the way of bookstores.  Few and far between.

In some senses that is bad, in others it is good.

I live in an area with limited educational opportunities and eCollege is already fairly normal here. I know a dozen people working on advanced degrees remotely.  eEducation is an agent for global change, its greatest impact originally outside countries with good educational systems in place.
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Jonathan Johnson

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2014, 01:43:55 AM »

5-  Let's do some science fiction.  Imagine a performance hall on a college campus 20 years from now.        What should it look like?  How would it be different from today's halls?

So there is some pessimism with regards to the future of performance halls on college campuses. As a big, expensive box that doesn't see constant use, there may be less desire to build them as colleges become less campus-centric. Construction costs will increase while attendance and events decrease.

The big-draw concerts (popular music) have already left the performance hall in favor of the sports arena and outdoor festival grounds or for smaller shows, the bar scene.

Reflecting these realities, I see performance halls of the future shrinking and becoming more intimate. Smaller spaces will be easier to design for acoustics and the sound systems serving them will be less expansive and less expensive. We already see this where some performing arts venues are repurposing excess space as "studio theaters" to accommodate smaller audiences for lower-budget productions. No longer will you see 3,000- or even 2,000-seat theaters; I would expect to see more in the 500-1000 seat range.

There will be fewer independent theaters all around, due to increasing difficulty finding philanthropic patrons of the arts. Instead, you will see more churches being built with the performing arts in mind, with a wider variety than just traditional choirs and contemporary praise/worship bands. They will be equipped with better sound systems and more comprehensive and flexible stage lighting, rivaling even the most renowned performance halls. Churches won't just be for Sunday morning anymore.

Even as colleges become decentralized, public primary and secondary (elementary, junior high/middle, and high) schools will remain largely as we see them today. Larger districts will build schools with auditoriums that compare favorably with traditional performing arts centers. Many will become the performing arts centers for their communities.
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Mark McFarlane

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2014, 05:09:38 AM »

So there is some pessimism with regards to the future of performance halls on college campuses.


An interesting, and reasonable view, me thinks.  I hope you are right about more Christian churches being built.  Looking at attendance over the last 50 years shows nearly a 50% decrease in absolute Sunday attendance. Accounting for population growth makes the statistic worse.
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Mark McFarlane

Tim Perry

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2014, 08:32:51 AM »

I forsee concert halls as having a significantly larger roll in coming years do to climate change. Outdoor concerts will become almost entirely unviable due to increased frequency and intensity of storms.
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Bill Kessinger

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2014, 09:42:57 AM »

Really interesting thoughts guys...keep them coming please. 
Allow me to pose a few follow up questions..
Rather than focus the discussion on if or if not they will exist in the future...let's say for argument's sake that some form of a concert hall will exist 20yrs from now. 

How big are they?

What would YOU or your ARTISTS like to see in them. 

What would you like that you aren't getting/seeing now. 

Or even from a patron's point of view..Have we broken down all of the barriers between the artist and the patron?

Is it some form of technology, or some experience that will be different in the future? 

Again guys, thanks for all the input, please keep it coming.  Not trying to spark a debate on anything, just a friendly 'what if' discussion.



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Jonathan Johnson

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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2014, 03:42:59 PM »

I hope you are right about more Christian churches being built.  Looking at attendance over the last 50 years shows nearly a 50% decrease in absolute Sunday attendance. Accounting for population growth makes the statistic worse.

I certainly get the statistics. But what I predict is not necessarily an increase in the number of churches being built, but an increase in the percentage of churches being built with proper acoustics and performance space in mind. The ability to rent the facility to other organizations for different events -- even secular events -- will become an important part of the church's revenue stream as membership dwindles and is less able to pay for the construction and upkeep from free-will offerings and member donors.

The simple prayer house and the ornate cathedral do not necessarily lend themselves to a diversity of performances.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2014, 03:45:07 PM by Jonathan Johnson »
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Re: Performance Hall of the Future - Questionnaire
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2014, 03:42:59 PM »


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